Facebook Partners With Cisco To Expand Free Wi-Fi For Check-Ins

Just because you’ve found free Wi-Fi doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easy to connect. But starting yesterday, businesses are now able to give customers access to their free Wi-Fi in exchange for checking in on Facebook without the need to distribute a password.

The program, called CMX for Facebook Wi-Fi, is the result of a new collaboration between Facebook and Cisco. With this setup, users can get onto a business’s existing Wi-Fi connection by simply checking into that location on Facebook without dealing with a password. If they agree to that, then their name will show up on the business’s Facebook page, and the business will get access to the user’s anonymous demographic data.

But there is a way to make your check-ins private, Eric Tseng, head of Facebook’s Wi-Fi initiative, told TechCrunch. That way you don’t have to broadcast your location data to all your friends to take advantage of Wi-Fi when you’re out and about.

CMX for Facebook Wi-Fi started out last year with just 25 businesses as a pilot program called Facebook Wi-Fi. But in collaboration with Cisco, Facebook has been able to extend that service so any business in the US can sign up.

And if businesses continue to join the program, it could be easier than ever to find and get easy access to free Wi-Fi in the city.